Exciting Times” for Technological and Telecommunications Developments in the Cook Islands
Telecom Cook Islands Chief Executive Officer, Jules Maher, spoke to Ngariki Ngatae about developments in telecommunications in the Cook Islands, including an in-depth look at the new O3b Network, Cloud computing and related business solutions, the launch of 3G and his views on what the array of developments will lead to for the Cook Islands. Following is part one of the interview.

An interesting point made in the Development Partners Round Table 2012 by Hon. Minister Mark Brown was around the necessity for the Cook Islands to keep up with global technology trends and for that technology to be equally as accessible for the Pa Enua. He commented in the meeting, “Both the health and education sector spoke about the growing importance of technology in health conferencing and teleconferencing, delivering education to the outer islands and providing health services over telecommunications services to the outer islands. These are critical to us. The government is working very hard in the telecommunications field to make sure that as a country we don’t miss out on the way that the world is moving now.”
Jules Maher, CEO of Telecom Cook Islands (TCI), echoed that sentiment and explained the developments within the TCI and how they are looking at address the issue. Of the current monopoly arrangement with the government he commented, “The government gave the company a monopoly on the business. But the deal was, ‘you have to make sure you’re looking after the outer islands’ – they call it a universal service obligation. Make sure they’ve got as good as the rest.” According to Maher there are landlines and internet on every populated island in the Cook Islands. “Now it’s not fast in some areas – it’s quite slow. But it is internet and it is the basic broadband and we’ve got plans to improve that.” He added that six of the outer islands have a cellular network service including Aitutaki, Atiu, Mauke, Mangaia, Manihiki and Pukapuka. Mitiaro will be added to that list shortly, and Maher says, “We’ll have the rest covered by the end of the year.”
Maher said of the accessibility for the Pa Enua to a variety of modern telecommunications services and technology, “I think what’s happening is a lot of people are in touch with family and friends in Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere in the world – they can do it in a way that they haven’t been able to before. I’d love to have a study done – I’m actually happy to put a little bit of money into it to send somebody out to several of the outer islands. Talk to politicians, talk to the local community, talk to the churches, talk to the schools, talk to the kids, talk to the old folks. Saying, what’s happened? How are you using mobile? How are you using internet? What difference is it making? Especially at the moment, the sense we get is that there’s so much usage going on that we think it’s got to be making a huge difference.”
TCI expects to launch it’s new high speed internet service via the O3b Network mid-next year. O3b stands for the ‘Other 3 billion’ and is described on its website as a “reference to nearly half of the world’s population living in markets that are not adequately served with broadband internet access or mobile phone services.” Maher explained the concept, “They liken it to dropping fibre optic cable from the sky. This beam that it sends down will cover the southern group. First of all at the end of the year we’ll have new satellite tracking equipment up at Aro’a. They have two of them because these things are actually orbiting the equator at a much lower distance from the earth - only 8,000 kilometres as opposed to 36,000 kilometres for the current ones that we’ve got. So that means that the time it takes to bounce signals up and down is much shorter and... much more powerful.” He added, “I liken it to having... a garden hose connecting us to the rest of the world [but] now we’re going to have a great big fat pipe. The amount of usage for that will be many times over and the speed is going to be many times over.”
In the countdown to the switch to the O3b Network, TCI has been slowly lowering broadband package prices in the hopes that it will encourage customers to “ramp up their own usage” in order to grow revenues from customers to justify the “risk” of the investment into O3b. “When I say invest in it, we have signed a five year contract with them so that requires us to make monthly charges - whether we use the service or not. So the challenge for us as a business is to make sure we get customers using it and paying for it – use the maximum. That way the more we use it, of course, the lower we can make the prices too. So that’s where we’re at at the moment – there’s a huge amount of planning that has gone into that.” According to the CEO, the northern group won’t receive coverage in the new network. “We don’t think we could ever justify investment in O3B for them. That would require two more beams to cover the whole of the northern group and the cost of those beams – you just couldn’t get it back. It’s hundreds of thousands per month – and that’s U.S. dollars!”
Maher said of the current situation in the Cook Islands with pricing of telecommunications services, “I know it is still hugely expensive compared to anywhere else – well not to the Pacific it isn’t – but to the rest... like, New Zealand and Australia. We’re always going to be behind them but we can do a huge amount better with this O3b.” The launch of the first four of the O3b satellites looks to be on track for the target of January. There are four satellites per rocket and the first four will be launched ahead for testing to be conducted. “Once they’ve got the eight orbiting then they’ve got a really good coverage in service. So we’ll see some action here towards the end of the year as far as the equipment is concerned. Exciting times actually!”
Cloud computing is the fast-growing trend in the world of information technology (IT), defined as the “delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet).” Benefits of the system for businesses include allowing enterprises “to get their applications up and running faster - with easier manageability and less maintenance” as well as ease and efficiency in “adjusting IT resources - servers, storage, and networking - to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.” Maher commented that while Cook Island businesses do have access to Cloud computing services, cost factors as well as limited internet speeds does limit the scope of how businesses can currently take advantage of Cloud computing. “With the O3B technology, the speed will mean you can actually have the interactivity between servers - really fast.” TCI currently offers services that mirror the Cloud computing concept, as it has invested in Virtual Servers available for businesses to hire as an alternative to having all the required hardware needed to run a business located on-premises. “So that’s happening now... but certainly O3B will make it much more viable to be connected to the international community.”
Featured in the next edition of the Herald (Wednesday 8 February) will be part two of the interview, where Maher elaborates on the launch of 3G services in the Cook Islands, as well as his views of what possibilities the developments in technology and telecommunications could present for the Cook Islands.

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